As someone who regularly swaps his phone for the latest and greatest I can happily compare this to other recent flagships such as the Samsung Note 4 and S6 Edge, as well as the Sony Z3 and HTC One M9, and the iPhone 6 Plus, all of which I’ve owned in recent months.
Initial impressions out of the box were good and I was impressed with the overall footprint of the phone considering the size of screen they have fit into it. A very sleek phone with no buttons on any edge, and having never owned any of the previous LG flagships, I was dubious as to how I would get on with the buttons on the back of the device. I know that they are meant to fall underneath your forefinger but in the videos it always seems a bit awkward. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to hold and differentiate the power and volume buttons, and the slight texture to the volume buttons makes them seem a little more premium. It has only taken a couple of days for me to make the error of trying to turn my S6 on by pressing the back!
The Quad HD screen is a stunner! Crisp and clear and brightness holds up well and I have not seen any of the power saving dimming that I saw reviews moan about with the G3. Comparing it to the Quad HD screens of the S6 and Note 4, it matches and exceeds the clarity of the Samsung due to its proper Full RGB matrix as opposed to the diamond matrices on the Samsungs. Its colours are also pretty vivid and not washed out. It is perhaps the best LCD screen I have seen on a phone.
One of the biggest selling points of this phone is the camera, and LG have equipped a 16MP sensor with an f/1.8 lens. Now I’m no camera tech expert but I’m told this is good, and beats the f/1.9 of the Samsung S6. Basically, it allows more light into the lens and also allows for better depth of field shots, so getting the background blurred and foreground in focus. I have been taking hundreds of photos and comparing them shot for shot with the S6 Edge I own. The LG matches the S6 and often exceeds photos with the quality and colour accuracy – it has a colour spectrum analyser. Focussing is very fast thanks to the laser autofocus and the control at your finger tips in “Manual” mode is quite astonishing, allowing shots of up to 30 seconds, manual focus and shooting in RAW format, thanks to the phone running Android Lollipop – shipped with 5.1 on my phone.
The processor included is the Snapdragon 808, a six core chip, as opposed to the 8 core 810 that’s in the HTC One M9 and LG G Flex 2. In daily use I have not seen any issues with it at all and nearly every app and game opens and runs extremely well and quickly. The only time I have seen it falter is with Real Racing 3 which I think it struggles to push the extreme amount of detail around the Quad HD screen, the exact same issue my Note 4 (with Snapdragon 805) has.
What would I change, and should you buy the LG G4? I think for me, the plastic back with faux hammered metal look detracts from the overall quality of the phone and makes it seem cheaper and less impressive than it is. I would definitely look to purchase one of the leather battery covers and then you’ll have a luxury flagship that feels like it matches the internals. I would highly recommend this phone for people that enjoy watching TV and films on such a beautiful screen, that want to use a micro SD card for extra content, and for people that want to really play around with capturing stunning photos.
